1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for organizing, transporting and storing personal items, and more specifically, to devices for holding personal items at stadium events.
2. Description of the Background
Attending sporting events such as football and baseball is a common recreational activity or hobby for a large number of Americans. For many people, playing in or attending sports games has been a lifelong interest. During sporting events, many enthusiasts enjoy scorekeeping, collecting autographs, or collecting game-day booklets or other types of memorabilia to remember that particular game by or to collect statistics or souvenirs relating to a favorite player or team. Baseball games, for example, generate a wealth of statistics in addition to the number of runs scored in a given game, like RBIs, ERA, errors, saves, batting average, etc. Thus, for many years, many baseball enthusiasts make a hobby out of keeping score during games in which their favorite team plays, including keeping detailed track of all statistics earned by the team and each player, and often consider those records to be keepsakes akin to a baseball card collection or game ball. Often, the organizers or vendors at professional or semi-professional (or even club or amateur) sporting events will cater to an enthusiast's desire to keep track of game play or obtain mementos of the game by handing out player bios, custom scorecards, keepsake tchotchkes, or the like for fans to collect, carry with them and refer to during the game and/or take home afterwards.
Also for many people, attendance at sporting events is a full day or full afternoon outing during which the average attendee will need to carry important personal effects on his or her person or in a bag or organizer for the entirety of the outing. In these instances, it is often necessary to have certain personal items or documents organized such that they may be easily accessed by the user; i.e. a ticket stub ready to show to an usher or security guard when entering a stadium or when leaving and returning to your seat, reading or sun glasses, cellular phone, and pen-and-paper on which to make notes or keep statistics during the game or to obtain a player's autograph.
In a typical baseball or football stadium, the seating generally consists of individual, slatted plastic or metal chairs with a fixed back, fold-down seat, and in some cases, shared armrests. Although generally similar in many venues, the precise size, spacing and construction of the seating in different venues varies significantly. In many cases the underside of each seat is occupied by structural hardware for the seat itself or foot room for the occupant of the seat behind it such that there is little space for a fan to store personal items. Even when there is space underneath of a stadium seat to place personal belongings of the type that a fan normally brings to a sporting event, the area underneath a seat is often dirty, sticky, wet, or prone to being stepped or spilled upon such that scorecards or delicate souvenirs stored there are at risk of being soiled and ruined. Further, personal items stored under the seat are not quickly and easily accessible when a run is scored or personal article needed.
Accordingly, a device meant to contain and organize personal items in a readily accessible manner at a sporting event would be desirable. It is also desirable that such a storage device be removable so that event attendees can take the organizer with them to safeguard against leaving small items behind (a common occurrence when attendees are forced to store personal items underneath their seats and out of sight) and also to ensure that the frequent attendee who wants to ensure that certain items are brought to each event may keep those items organized in the device between events or throughout the sports season. Finally, it would be desirable that such a device be adaptable to be affixed in multiple modes to all manner and geometry of sporting arena seating so as to accommodate the variety of seating types and dimensions in different venues.
Prior art devices for holding small personal items are not well suited for use at sporting events or with bleacher-style chairs as described above. For example, U.S. Design Pat. No. 392,613 depicts an organization device meant to be draped over the armrest of a chair such as those in a recreational vehicle or on a boat. However, if the typical seats at a stadium event have any armrests at all, they are shared armrests with no lateral space between the armrest and the seat bed or between the armrest and the neighboring chair, such that use of the device described in the '613 patent would infringe on the personal space of the user's neighbor. In addition, any available armrests at most stadium events are narrow and often without the length to support a device of sufficient size to hold a useful number of personal items.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,463 discloses a “Sports Pack” that is attachable to the underside of a stadium-type seat through the use of elastic straps which wrap around and contact all sides of the seat base, including an integral seat cushion that covers the top of the seat base. This device is designed to hold personal items in a horizontal orientation, which is not generally conducive to organizing smaller personal items that might fall out of the device's one large pocket when the bag is turned on its side, and is capable of use only with a specific type of stadium seating due to the length of the straps and the fit of the bag and cushion on the surface area of the seat base. The cushion described therein may also prevent the standard fold-down stadium seat from fully or properly closing, such as when the user stands up to allow additional spectators to pass by. Moreover, the contents of the bag are not visible to the user in his seated position, and therefore are not quickly accessible as the user will be required to fish around underneath his seat in order to grasp any of them.
Therefore, what is needed is a removable device for storing small or delicate personal items at a public seated event, whose attachment means allows it to be quickly and easily attached to and removed from any seat of the type typically found at stadium events. The device would advantageously hold a user's personal items in clear view and in a vertical orientation, and comprise pockets to organize and secure small personal items for ready access. Moreover, such a device must not interfere with the personal space of any other attendees of the event nor with any walkway, ingress or egress from the seating area where other spectators may pass.